Confirmed: Kotaku reporting that Blizzard has hired PopCap VP
by Lesley Smith 
May 12th 2009 at 4:00PM
Rumours abound from the Australian arm of Kotaku (and our own Joystiq) that PopCap's CEO Greg Canessa is joining Blizzard. Given the success of their WoW addons for Peggle and (my personal favourite) Bejweled, the hiring of the man who helped launch Xbox Live Arcade is quite exciting. Kotaku reports Canessa will be joining the teams responsible for Diablo and World of Warcraft. However they don't actually cite a source and Blizzard apparently didn't respond for a comment 'immediately', which is quite an odd way to phrase it.
Update: Blizzard spokesperson Shon Damron got back to us confirming that Greg Canessa has indeed been hired by the company:
"Yes, we can confirm that Greg Canessa has taken a position at Blizzard Entertainment as project director for Battle.net. He will report to our vice president of online technologies and work closely with the executive team to help fine-tune the next version of Battle.net, currently in development."
Filed under: Blizzard, News items, AddOns
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
FifthDream May 12th 2009 4:21PM
Maybe we *WILL* see "Plants Vs. Scourge" someday...
dAnixx May 12th 2009 4:55PM
this ^
Mr Magoo May 12th 2009 9:04PM
Or perhaps they are moving in the mobile market?
After all..they just started nuking Iphone apps?
Not sure this is really WOW news per se. I doubt they have hired him to manage their new free wow addon game.
Superthrust May 12th 2009 9:48PM
mr. magoo makes a point...
I forsee bliz trying to charge for these minigames, or attempting to incorporate them into their normal UI, or other "minigames" into their UI...
They need to quit trying to make hte game look pretty, killing all other computers and enhance what people want. I.E., guild halls, and other stuff...
Nihilas May 13th 2009 9:10AM
One can hope...
OnniHopeDream May 12th 2009 4:39PM
Typo in the title, forgot the L in "Blizzard" ;p
Tumleren May 12th 2009 4:54PM
Are you kidding?
I love those guys at Bizzard!
Braundo May 12th 2009 4:43PM
Peggle > Bejeweled. It's a proven fact.
Dart May 12th 2009 4:55PM
So the CEO of a casual gaming company is joining Blizzard.
DID NOT SEE THAT COMING
DarkKnight388 May 13th 2009 4:08AM
I see what you did there! :-)
Orlando May 12th 2009 5:23PM
Saying "they didn't immediately return our message, or contact us" isn't usual in the media world at all. I see those exact words in local newspapers 5-6 times a week
Bubsa May 12th 2009 5:28PM
So long as he's not another GC
I'm happy.
Zeplar May 12th 2009 6:42PM
Unhappy with GC why? Because he tells you what he's doing? The comments GC makes on the forums that you hate so much, are the ideas of every developer. GC is just the only developer in the entire company that talks to the customers.
Zach May 12th 2009 6:49PM
GC is freakin' awesome.
Geoff May 12th 2009 8:17PM
Yeah. It's called rushing to print before waiting for confirmation and is a pretty poor attitude at the best of times.
Bubsa May 12th 2009 9:37PM
Clearly, none of you have played AoK/AoM.
Sibe May 13th 2009 2:12AM
Just shows Blizzard is officially going for the casual cash cow.
How you can actually call Peggle a game is beyond me. "Shoot in a direction and hope you score points" is more like gambling then an actual video game. Does this mean Blizzard is trying to sell crap instead of actual content and gameplay now?
Popcap can sell easy-to-make 2d games (based on other games) with flashy sounds and colourful objects and cutesy animals and make millions, Blizzard wants in on it. Now start the days when the casual market start to hurt hardcore games as is being seen with this announcement. Many thought the casual industry wouldn't hurt real gamers, but now it seems that it is very much possible.
Brian May 13th 2009 7:47AM
Nice to see new blood that has experience with simple, fun and addictive games joining Blizzard. I would expect to see mobile games based on Blizzard's fantasy franchises but more like puzzle games than an attempt to get Diablo on to the iPhone or similar. A Battlenet chat client would also be very cool and a good way to keep in touch with all things Blizzard and also add a little advertising space. The best thing Blizzard could do would be to move into the smart phone app market so that while players are away form their PCs they can still get their Blizzard fix.